Arsenal show the same away failings

If you want to know why Arsenal have been struggling on their travels this season, their final away game of 2005 provided ample evidence.

In past seasons, Arsene Wenger would have regarded this fixture as a great chance to take three points but such has been his team's wobbly form outside Highbury this campaign that a draw, by their own high standards, was all the Gunners deserved yesterday.

Although they struck the bar through Freddie Ljungberg and had arguably the game's other two best chances - through Mathieu Flamini in the first half and Kolo Toure right at the death when the big central defender somehow missed the target from six yards -Arsenal showed only flashes of the style and fluency that has marked so many of their performances on the road during the past decade.

Maybe psychologically they left something in the dressing room, with Tuesday's high-profile Highbury clash with Manchester United to come. But the fact is that the first half of this season has been the worst for results of Wenger's nine years in charge.

Nervy at the back where Milan Baros' pace was a constant threat until he tired, Arsenal were also matched in midfield where Gavin McCann put in an inspired display of harrying and chasing. Just when they needed Thierry Henry to provide a bit of magic to secure a third straight victory following that unexpected trio of consecutive defeats, even the mercurial Frenchman had a quiet afternoon.

"Offensively we could have done much better," admitted Wenger. "We never looked technically united or on the same wavelength going forward. We never put enough collective pressure on them. Thierry suffered physically because it was his third game in quick succession."

Inevitably, the sale of Patrick Vieira also came up in the press conference. "When you make a decision you go forward, you do not always look back," Wenger responded. "It's too easy every time we don't play well to say we would have played better with Patrick. We dropped two points but we have to be realistic and give credit to Villa because they fought for everything and we were not astute enough.''

Villa might have broken the deadlock with better finishing and a trifle more luck after enjoying considerable chunks of possession. David O'Leary was delighted with the commitment of his side who have now lost only once in eight outings.

O'Leary is highly critical of the Christmas and New Year fixture pile-up -yesterday his small squad was shorn of five regulars - but has brought in a sports scientist to keep his players fit and full of self-belief, and it showed. The Villa manager decided not to comment on referee Uriah Rennie's inconsistent performance, preferring to concentrate on other matters. "The way the fixtures have been drawn up is scandalous but we've nobody else to bring in and I'm delighted with a clean sheet today after giving away so many bad goals," he said